It is through an agreement signed with the “País Abierto y Digital” Foundation through the project “Towards a Participatory Government: Promotion of Open Government Policies and Citizen Participation at the Subnational Level”, co-financed by the European Union Delegation in Argentina.
On March 18, Mayor Francisco Azcué, invited by Licentiate Andrés Ibarra, president of the “País Abierto y Digital” (PAD) Foundation, signed an agreement to execute the project “Towards a participatory government: promotion of open government policies and citizen participation at the subnational level”.
For this reason, this Friday, a first meeting was held between Mayor Francisco Azcué, teams from the PAD Foundation, and the presence of Chief of Cabinet Eduardo Caminal; Government Secretary Luciano Dell´Olio; Treasury Secretary Pablo Ferreyra; Secretary of Productive Development Federico Schattenhofer; Undersecretary of Development and Entrepreneurship Gabriel Enguelberg; Leandro Garbarino, Undersecretary of the Special Unit for Strategic Projects; Cristian Federik, Undersecretary of Modernization; Ignacio Terenzano, Director of Strategic Planning and Financing, and Nicolas Marotte, Director of Local Governments, from the Secretariat of Modernization of Entre Ríos.
PURPOSES
The project has the support of the Austral University and the Municipality of Bahía Blanca and aims to strengthen democracy at the subnational or local level, promoting collaboration between governments, civil society, and other actors to improve transparency, accountability, and citizen participation in public decision-making.
Specifically, it aims to implement Citizen Participation and Open Data Platforms, to be executed by an external provider, at the Foundation's expense.
To this end, the PAD Foundation commits to the development of the following activities for project management:
a) Implementation of a citizen participation and open government strategy, which includes mechanisms such as the use of public consultation platforms and participatory budgeting
b) Training for municipal officials and public employees through the Austral University
c) Collaboration in the assembly of management and support teams
d) Assistance for the creation of citizen participation roundtables with local civil society representatives;
e) Assistance for the design of communication and training for residents on the use of the implemented tools and programs;
f) Monitoring of the implementation of the Citizen Participation and Open Data Platforms, to be executed by an external provider, at the Foundation's expense.
For its part, the Municipality commits to the following actions:
a) Provide the support of all municipal authorities to be able to carry out this project.
b) Sustain the citizen participation and open data programs for at least 2 consecutive years from their implementation and launch.
c) Provide and assign the necessary human resources team, with their corresponding time and dedication to this project, and sustain it over time while these actions are maintained.
d) Provide a citizen registry that reflects both the inhabitants of the municipality and those who work in the municipality and live elsewhere.
e) Possess a fixed internet connectivity level greater than 10 mbps upload and download.
This first meeting included work meetings with the teams of the Revenue Directorate; IT; Citizen Participation; Participatory Budgeting; Communication and IDE, among other areas.